Upgrading and Repairing PCs by Scott Mueller (book on Google)

Posted on 2009-05-27, 17:59

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Google just happens to have most of this book readable online. It's jam packed with loads of info about the older stuff that we yearn for here. Go nuts, folks. 😀

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Re: VLB IDE IO controller + HDD (master) + CDROM (slave) = problem

Posted on 2009-05-27, 17:47

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You'd usually plug it into a sound card with IDE (popular in '95) or your secondary IDE port on your computer. Onboard IDE in 1995 was getting a lot better in Pentium systems, with Intel chipsets especially. Triton 1 was around (430FX) with PIIX IDE. I believe I ran a 4X CDROM on my secondary IDE …

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-27, 17:44

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the info so then after 2000 pc performance skyrocketed as far as advancement rates at least in the past 8 or 9 nines years. At least it seems that to me. Not at much of a different rate than previously. The '90s were much more exciting than this decade IMO. We went from 486 with VGA/EGA …

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Re: Ensoniq AudioPCI vs Vortex2 w/DB60XG daughterboard?

Posted on 2009-05-27, 17:37

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

AudioPCI has poor MIDI quality. It's entirely software-driven and they couldn't do much in the way of quality back when the CPU available was usually a Pentium MMX or similar. MIDI is the same in DOS and Windows. Its digital audio is clean though and yes it does emulate a 16-bit, 48KHz Soundscape …

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Re: VLB IDE IO controller + HDD (master) + CDROM (slave) = problem

Posted on 2009-05-26, 20:00

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That controller is a Promise DC-2000 VL. From the readme, it reminds me of my old Promise EIDE2300 in some ways but seems to have fewer speed tweaks. My guess is that it supports PIO Mode 3 speed levels. You can enable read/write multiple and VL 32-bit I/O too with the driver. These features may or …

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Re: A problem with lots of old Direct X games

Posted on 2009-05-23, 14:00

by

by swaaye

in Windows

in Windows

The DX10 cards don't do 16-bit color dithering in 3D mode. So any games that are 16-bit only will look awful.

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Re: Good s370 mobo?

Posted on 2009-05-23, 00:31

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I imagine that part of VIA's bad chipset rep comes from the fact that most of the mobos were built by some shoddy mobo manufacturers. Many of the issues were caused by poorly programmed BIOSs that didn't set up the chipset properly. That PCI latency patch for VIA chipsets just reprograms various …

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Re: Windows 7 ??

Posted on 2009-05-19, 05:53

by

by swaaye

in DOSBox General

in DOSBox General

I find it funny that the "XP Mode" is even exciting at all. MS VirtualPC has been free for like 5 years now and is what this "XP Mode" is based on from the looks of things. So feel free (literally) to run your "XP Mode" on Vista too. Or run Windows 9x on Vista. VPC works on real XP as well. MS VPC …

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-15, 19:48

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pentium II = 1997. Pentium III = 1999. Your Dell is probably from 1998 since it had a Pentium II 350 MHz which is a Deschutes-core Pentium II. 1995 was the time of Socket 5 and Pentium @ 120/133 MHz.

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-14, 18:35

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah I remember that Win95 patch. It's needed if you want to use a >= 300 MHz K6-x with Win95. Otherwise the OS breaks. Fortunately Win98 was right around the corner. But, so was the worst part of the K6 era: AGP slots on Super 7 mobos.

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Re: Logitech Soundman Wave

Posted on 2009-05-14, 18:14

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Too bad I didn't keep Logitech's demo audio CD. 😉

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-14, 18:13

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

DOS_Boy wrote: The first multimedia Kit I had installed on my 486 was an "Audiowave Green Platinum 16" Does anyone remember this sound card brand? Sounds like a generic name made up for a pack-in card.

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-14, 18:07

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

worst thing i ever did was build a k6-2 350mhz pc it was unstable as f***, i eventually got a p2 thank god Tell me about it. I went with a P2 266 when they were new and it cost a ton of money but you got what you paid for compared to the pain in the ass AMD K6 line. Bad performance, horrible …

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-14, 18:06

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

my one slot 1 system i jammed slocket in it and fc-pga tp fc-pga 2 adapter on that and a 1.4 ghz cpu in that and am going to see if i can max it at 768 mb ram. wow already runs at 20 fps mwhahahaha for pc from 1995 thats pretty damn good. Uhhh, that's more like a PC from 2001 actually. With a good …

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-13, 17:33

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

They do. I picked one out for a friend of mine looking for a stick. I've used it a bit and it is rather nice. I'm fairly sure that this is what I got him those years ago. http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/st290pro.htm

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Logitech Soundman Wave

Posted on 2009-05-11, 01:35

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, way back in '93 or '94, I ordered a demo CD from Logitech that explained to me how awesome wavetable was for gaming. Had some tunes on it in both FM and supposed Soundman Wave output. It was one of the first OPL4 cards. Anyone have first hand experience with this card? Was it any good?

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-11, 01:19

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a USB Flightstick Pro. It's only a few years old. They still make 'em. Love that stick. The mag complains about the low stick tension, but frankly I think that's a plus because it gives you excellent fine control. Also, since I'm a member of the lefty minority, and most sticks aren't for …

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Re: My video card collection's website - The Golden Era of 3D Acceleration

Posted on 2009-05-07, 17:45

by

by swaaye

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

We dont care how much it costs you Swaaye :D It's both tempting and somewhat horrifying to think about. It is very, very time-consuming work. But it is also so cool to have these magazines preserved for all and so easily accessible. I am still completely amazed that the CGW Museum fellow did all …

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Re: My video card collection's website - The Golden Era of 3D Acceleration

Posted on 2009-05-07, 17:37

by

by swaaye

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

Man those were big magazines. Shame that it stopped there though, I would love to read some of the reviews of some of these cards. It's really difficult finding information on the old ones. Usenet is the place to go. Google Groups, to be exact. Just about everything has been discussed to death on …

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Re: My video card collection's website - The Golden Era of 3D Acceleration

Posted on 2009-05-06, 19:02

by

by swaaye

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

Wow nice link Davros :) Whoa, that's crazy, so much! It seems to stop at 1992 though? :) Yeah the CGW Museum only put together the first 100 issues because the "curator" over there is mainly interested in those years and because the '90s issues get to be about 500 pages each or so. I've been …

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